


no one has anything to tell

by callixto



Category: Ensemble Stars! (Video Game)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Revue Starlight Fusion, Ambiguous/Open Ending, M/M, POV Third Person, Swords
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-07-25
Updated: 2019-07-25
Packaged: 2020-07-12 14:27:30
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 921
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19947655
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/callixto/pseuds/callixto
Summary: You'd go to war to defend this brilliance in your chest.





	no one has anything to tell

**Author's Note:**

> it's not any more violent than standard leo talking about the war dialogue but you do you. first prompt for round 2, gifting, of eso!!

“Ou-sama,” Izumi begins, more patiently than he thinks Leo deserves, “ _where_ are you going?”

Leo’s hand goes to where his sword _will_ be, and he spins on his heel, unflinching. His eyes burn just shy of fever-bright. “We have an audition, Sena!”

Izumi knows. “We’re not leaving til later. Or did you already forget?”

His king is a lot of things, but not a coward. He looks Izumi dead on, and says, “I wasn’t taking you with me.

A rusting sword like that, I’d just throw it away! But if Sena cares about it, if he wants to preserve its brilliance, then I’ll fight to keep it safe! I’ll polish it back to a shining blade, just you watch! But, see, it’s not something worthy of risking my precious light getting hurt. No matter how highly you think of it.”

 _“That’s not your choice to make."_ Izumi’s nails bite into his palms without his consent, his face warping. “It matters to me! You can’t -- how dare you? Do you think this is a game?!”

“Even if the brilliance fades from this song, I can always write more as long as I have you with me! What am I supposed to do if you dim, though?” He’s sunk his teeth deep into his ideals, again, utterly unbending at just the wrong time, and Izumi doesn’t know what else he expected. Leo holds his head high.

Izumi’s hand twitches towards him. He shoves it back in his pocket, along with his feelings. “I’m supposed to be your sworn knight,” he hisses, finally. “If you’re going to fight on your own trying to protect me, you might as well just throw me away too!”

* * *

  
Shu catches Mika as he fumbles a two-step, grabbing too hard at his hip and spinning him with what’s left of his momentum — it’s easier than letting him fall or supporting him freehand, he’d say if asked. “Clumsy,” he spits out. “This is just the warm-up! If you twist your ankle now, what will we do in battle today?”

Mika doesn’t weigh anything in his heavy hands.

He ducks his head in apology anyways, stammering. “S-sorry, Oshi-san.” He peeks up at Shu through lowered lashes, as absurdly long as ever, and continues a heartbeat later once he’s let down his guard. “I’d fight anyways, though.”

“ _Non!_ And hurt yourself worse, you failure? Do you think I can’t comport myself alone?!”

Mika does think that. “Y’re amazing, Oshi-san, but.. Valkyrie’s style don’t work without a second pair a hands f’r ya.” He’s trained this past year tirelessly to be that and recoup what brilliance they could, after all. The light went out of their performances at that first loss -- of Shu’s eyes, of Nazuna’s bitter smile til he had to leave or never show it again. Carving it into something ‘new’, a Valkyrie borne, now, of he and Oshi-san alone and more equally, kept them from rotting away.

A delicate crack spirals up Mademoiselle’s cheek, tracing a tear-track from the corner of her sad blue eyes to her chin. She’d been safely back-stage, of course, but they both know she shattered part-way when they were brought to their knees.

Losing again would break them irrevocably.

* * *

  
They bow properly in the wings, the lights above pivoting like flowers towards the sun at the center of the stage. There’s no audience save themselves.

“I reaaally didn’t think you’d show up,” Izumi drawls, stalking across the lacquered wood. He’s confident, now; throws his cape back over his shoulder as it shimmers into view, a step behind and to the left of his king. Their linked-together pinkies, cut off first by the leather of Knights’ gloves, come apart like a daisy chain as Leo pulls reluctantly away out of Valkyrie’s sight.

Shu scoffs, his heels clicking against the stage. “Don’t flatter yourself,” he calls, eyes narrowed with distaste. “I have something to fight for again, don’t I? You’re not that special.” Under the stage-lights, his old arrogance can return in part. Behind him, Mika runs a hand over the daggers strapped to his thighs to comfort himself, growling in the back of his throat.

Leo jabs his elbow back into Izumi’s gut. “Hey!” he interrupts, throwing his arms out wide. “What kinda battle’s this? We took our bows, and there weren’t any lines on the script! Insulting each other like this is _childish_ , Sena -- I’ll apologize for him, Itsuki, so draw your sword already!”

“I quite agree,” Shu says, with a click of his tongue. His hand decidedly doesn’t shake on the hilt of his rapier, pointed now at Leo’s chin. “Improvisation might suit your wreck of a unit, but Valkyrie has standards.”

Izumi’s eyes flare. His expression’s still dripping with poison as they whirl into action, his shoulders pressed against Leo’s -- they fight back to back, falling easily into sync even now. It’s less of a dance than a heart-pounding, tense performance, with none of the scripted elegance of the ballet Izumi’d trained in. On his own, he’d lunge for their throats and be done with the matter. But Leo won’t cover his own back.

Mika moves before Shu can so much as begin to tug at his strings, fingers twitching uselessly in their gloves and around his sword as he brings it up against Leo’s. They lock eyes over the Knights’ shoulders, spinning on an enclosed gravity of their own, Valkyrie’s little world closing in on them with the clash of blades.

It’s a long, dragged-out and bloody act before the curtains draw. 


End file.
